Antiwar.com Blog

It will be interesting to see what Rupert Murdoch does to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, particularly if long-standing rumors that he intends to distance itself at least a little from its thinly veiled Likudist line. This week’s op-ed by Shalem Center senior fellow Michael Oren entitled “Israel’s Lebanon Disaster” was particularly – extravagantly, embarrassingly – transparent in its implied championship of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is predictably calling for the resignation of the Olmert government and new elections. An unsparing indictment of Olmert’s performance during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the op-ed apparently anticipated a much more damning verdict in the long-awaited Winograd Commission report than what the Commission actually produced, one day after Oren’s screed. Oren, whose bizarre comparison last September (also published in the Journal) of George W. Bush to the Old Testament prophet Jonah as part of the neo-conservative campaign to rally support for the Surge I noted in a September post, even blames the fact that his rifle fell apart during Israel’s eleventh-hour ground offensive in Lebanon on Olmert.

An Israeli nationalist historian who was born and raised in the U.S., is a protege of Natan Sharansky, the director of the Shalem Center’s Adelson Institute, named for its founder-funder, casino multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who reportedly is also the biggest financial backer of Freedom’s Watch, which launched its own campaign to save the Surge at the same time that the Journal published Oren’s Jonah article. It’s really all part of the same Netanyahu network: the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, the Shalem Center, Freedom’s Watch, and you can add the Middle East specialists at the American Enterprise Institute, Sharansky’s One Jerusalem, etc. etc. Aside from the fact that Oren clearly failed to anticipate the Commission’s exculpatory findings, what’s remarkable about this most recent column is the Journal‘s willingness to be so openly partisan in Israel’s internal politics. Is Bret Stephens, who, before becoming the Journal‘s “Global View” columnist, served as editor of the Conrad Black-owned Jerusalem Post, responsible? Will Murdoch retain him when he assumes full control?

Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service’s Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.

According to the fourth quarter reports, the majority of military contributors supported Ron Paul, the one antiwar candidate in the Republican primaries.

Ron Paul received more contributions from servicemembers than the other three remaining GOP candidates:

Ron Paul – 1349
McCain – 413
Romney – 140
Huckabee – 99

And the Dems:
Obama: 466
Clinton: 181

This follows the same trend that was set in the second and third quarters of last year.

UPDATE: Ron Paul also received more total money from military contributors than all the Democratic candidates combined, or all the Republicans combined. Here are the totals in dollars for each candidate:

Ron Paul $392,721.00
Barack Obama $124,234.00
John S McCain $106,309.00
Hillary Clinton $75,258.00
Fred Thompson $58,373.00
Mike Huckabee $47,376.00
Mitt Romney $43,332.00
Rudolph Giuliani $23,430.00
Bill Richardson $21,175.00
John Edwards $20,711.00
Joseph Biden $10,940.00
Duncan Hunter $9,820.00
Thomas Gerald Tancredo $7,200.00
Samuel Dale Brownback $3,606.00
Dennis J Kucinich $2,952.00
Christopher J Dodd $1,098.00
Mike Gravel $970.00

Thanks to Tex McRae and Jeff Shulman.

This morning the Ron Paul campaign announced the appointment of three new policy advisors: Doug Bandow has been appointed policy advisor to the campaign, while Charles Peña and Philip Giraldi have been named as foreign policy advisors.

On another note, the campaign has announced a new book by Ron Paul, to be published in April, The Revolution: A Manifesto. The book and audiobook are both available for pre-order.

In what is hopefully the first salvo by the states against the power of the federal war-making machine, Vermont lawmakers from both houses of the legislature are pushing bills to pull the state’s national guard troops from Iraq.

State Rep. Michael Fisher, D-Lincoln, said the authority to call up Guard members for Iraq duty has expired because that country no longer poses a threat to U.S. national security.

“The mission authorized in 2002 does not exist,” said Fisher, who plans to introduce a bill backed by 30 colleagues Wednesday that calls on Gov. Jim Douglas to join the effort. “Unless Congress grants a new authorization, the Vermont Guard should revert back to state control.”

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said the Senate would take up similar legislation.

“Bottom line is, if the politicians in Washington aren’t going to do the right thing for our troops, let’s do the right thing by bringing our Vermont Guard members home,” he said. “If Vermont can make one small step forward, I believe others will follow.”

Similar proposals are being considered by lawmakers in Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Let’s take their proposals to the other states and make this an issue in state legislative election this year.

I’m over at Taki’s Top Drawer, live-blogging the GOP debate: and look at all those cool pictures!

I was disappointed that Ron Paul only got 3% of the votes in yesterday’s Florida primary.  The trendline for his vote  percentages in most of elections since Iowa has been downward. 

I think Ron Paul is doing great in the debates and in broadcast interviews.  But his campaign seems gun-shy about stressing Paul’s stalwart position on the Iraq war.   Some of the ads the campaign is paying to run  have the punching power of wet noodles.   The Paul campaign has lately made far more effort stressing Paul’s devotion to veterans than his opposition to the Iraq war.

Did the dropout of Dennis Kucinich from the presidential race end any chance for a fervent delivery of the antiwar message to the American people?